Did you know? – Edition 5. The first World Cup.

The first ‘Subbuteo’ World Cup was played 1970 in London and Mike Dent (SCO/ENG) the only former ETF Europa Cup Winner 1976 from England, provided us with the original historical results. Peter Czarkowski (Germany) was the first World Champion ever and he already sadly past away. His father Günther Czarkowski (still alive) brought the game from England to Germany, distributed the game through toy shops and was the driving person on the foundation and constitution of the ETF in 1962. Since then things became more dynamic. Two players from eleven Associations, namely England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Irland, Rep of Irland, Gibraltar, Malta, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland  (22 Players) as well as USA and Israel with one player each, participated and completed the field of 24 players. The 7th Edition in 1994 (host Nation was USA in Chicago) was the last edition under the Patronance of FISA (Waddingtons Sports Games Ltd.).

The 24 players were drawn in the 6 groups of 4 players and the 2 top players of each group proceeded to the 2nd group stage, with 4 groups of 3 players. The top 2 players again emerged then to the Quarter-Finales. All results are in the FISTF archive. We can see that Subbuteo was innovative with the tournament modus in 1970. The FIFA World Cup 1982 was played with this modus, without the Q/F stage. The 1970 Final was won by Peter Czarkowski (GER) 2-0 Pierre Tignani (BEL).

Pierre Tignani (BEL) the 1966, 1967 winner and Peter Czarkowski (GER) the 1975 winner of the ETF Europa Cup are all time greats of the sport.